Week 14 Charger Power Rankings and Ratings

[Bolt-O]

Summary:

ranks2017.jpg


The rankings for the Chargers probably won't change that much unless there are some real tank jobs by the leaders or the Chargers. I re-added the ESPN Football Power Index, which is well hidden on their site, but I couldn't find the history for the season.

Initial Draft position is 13, based on a projected 8-8 record, and a .460 Strength of Schedule.

Blurbs follow

[Bolt-O]

Chris Simms, Bleacher Report/PFT 12 (LW 13 )

The Chargers are one of the hottest teams in the game; we know that. One thing that concerns me is that they have a hard time putting teams away. This is why they had some early-season losses and why a team like the Browns were able to hang around until the very end.

When Philip Rivers throws the ball like he has over the last few weeks and Los Angeles gets production from the run game, the offense becomes borderline unstoppable. There is just so much the offense is able to do.

The defense has transformed itself into one of the most dominant units in the game. It was the defense that finally put Cleveland away with two interceptions when the Browns were in scoring position late in the fourth quarter. It's a defense that's good at all three levels, and it's one that will be a pain in January.

I expect the Chargers to go on to win the AFC West, and I expect them to be a real challenge in the postseason. They might not be able to dominate any team in football, but they match up with the best of them.
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Frank Schwab, Yahoo Sports 10 (LW 11 )

The last three weeks, Keenan Allen has 33 catches, 436 yards and four touchdowns. Don't forget Allen as a major reason the Chargers are shaping up as the team nobody wants to see in January.
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Walter Football 6 (LW 9 )

It's crazy to think that if the Chargers didn't have kicking woes, or if they could simply run out the clock at Jacksonville, they could be 9-3 right now, with their only losses being to New England, Philadelphia and Kansas City. It's even crazier to think that they were once 0-4.

The Chargers may have beaten the Browns by "only" nine points, but they dominated that game. They outgained the Browns by nearly 150 net yards. The problem was the offense going just 1-of-5 in the red zone, which was unfortunate for my three-unit wager on them.

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Elliot Harrison, NFL.com 10 (LW 10 )

The Chargers won yet again, moving them into a first-place tie with the Raiders and Chiefs. Los Angeles beat Oakland ... who knocked off Kansas City ... who took down the Bolts early in the season. Seems like there will only be room for one AFC West team in the postseason. Interesting how much has been made about the Bolts' 0-4 start. And with that, of course, comes the comparison to the 1992 Chargers -- the only team to make the playoffs after that kind of start. Bobby Ross' team had a gritty quarterback in Stan Humphries, a solid rotation of RBs in Marion Butts, Rod Bernstine and Ronnie Harmon, and two bona fide stars on defense in Junior Seau and Leslie O'Neal. Sound vaguely familiar?

[Bolt-O]

Pete Prisco, CBS Sports 11 (LW 10)

They are now tied for first in the division. Who saw that coming? They weren't great against the Browns, but they found a way
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Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk/NBC 12 (LW 13 )

The next-to-last team the Patriots or Steelers want to see in the playoffs is closer and closer to getting there. (The Ravens are the Last team)
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Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News 13 (LW 18 )

It's hard to believe they started 0-4, and it's easy to believe they can now steal the AFC West.

This week: vs. Redskins
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Matt Verderame, Fansided.com 12 (LW 12 )

The Chargers didn't look impressive on Sunday, but they've pulled into a tie for first in the horrid AFC West.

[Bolt-O]

USA Today 11 (LW 11)

Major reason they've seized momentum in AFC West? How about gaudy plus-10 turnover differential (zero giveaways) during three-game win streak.
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ESPN 11 (LW 10 )

Rookie with impact: The undrafted Austin Ekeler has become an intriguing weapon in the Chargers' offense. He has the second-most offensive touches over their 6-2 run, scoring just as many touchdowns as Keenan Allen (4). Ekeler had one touch over the team's 0-4 start.
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MMQB 8 (LW 11)

(One of the Biggest) Risers for a second straight week! The Chargers even found a kicker who could make four field goals in a game (even if Travis Coons missed an early chip shot to start his Chargers career in style). No one left on their schedule has a winning record. I (Gary Gramling, SI Senior Editor) was the only one on the staff to pick the Chargers to make the playoffs at midseason, and if they don't do it this year I'll never forgive them and you shouldn't either.
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Reddit 11 (LW 12 )

This win wasn't as pretty as the two before it but the Chargers powered through the Browns for their sixth win in the last eight games. While Josh Gordon did well against the Chargers secondary (4 catches, 85 yards), Keenan Allen was the star of the show, becoming the first WR in NFL history to have 10+ catches for 100+ yards and 1+ touchdown in three straight games. Allen will look to make it 4 straight against Josh Norman and the Washington Redskins.

[Bolt-O]

OP updated with summary. Football Outsiders is late.

[Bolt-O]

Here is the Football Outsiders ratings:

	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	LAST WEEK	WEI. DVOA	RANK	W-L	OFFENSE DVOA	OFF. RANK	DEFENSE DVOA	DEF. RANK	S.T. DVOA	S.T. RANK
1	LARM	32.4%	1	33.7%	2	9-3	12.0%	8	-11.9%	4	8.5%	2
2	PHI	32.4%	2	34.7%	1	10-2	15.2%	4	-14.0%	3	3.2%	10
3	NO	29.8%	3	31.8%	3	9-3	27.1%	1	-4.8%	11	-2.1%	22
4	PIT	26.5%	4	26.5%	5	10-2	14.9%	5	-10.6%	5	0.9%	15
5	BAL	23.0%	6	24.1%	6	7-5	-9.8%	23	-23.4%	1	9.4%	1
6	MIN	22.4%	5	22.9%	7	10-2	14.5%	6	-8.5%	8	-0.6%	19
7	NE	20.2%	7	27.3%	4	10-2	25.6%	2	11.0%	29	5.6%	5
8	JAC	14.5%	8	11.2%	9	8-4	-2.8%	20	-21.8%	2	-4.5%	27
9	SEA	10.9%	11	13.6%	8	8-4	3.4%	13	-7.0%	9	0.6%	16
10	CAR	10.7%	9	10.1%	10	8-4	-2.3%	19	-8.7%	7	4.3%	8
11	KC	10.1%	10	1.2%	15	6-6	15.4%	3	10.8%	28	5.6%	6
12	DAL	5.3%	17	6.0%	12	6-6	7.0%	11	9.5%	26	7.7%	3
13	GB	4.4%	14	2.0%	14	6-6	4.4%	12	0.3%	18	0.3%	17
14	ATL	4.3%	15	4.3%	13	7-5	14.4%	7	9.1%	24	-1.0%	20
15	DET	3.6%	12	-0.8%	17	6-6	2.4%	14	4.5%	20	5.7%	4
16	LACH	2.0%	16	6.3%	11	6-6	8.9%	10	-3.0%	13	-9.9%	32
	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	LAST WEEK	WEI. DVOA	RANK	W-L	OFFENSE DVOA	OFF. RANK	DEFENSE DVOA	DEF. RANK	S.T. DVOA	S.T. RANK
17	WAS	-0.1%	13	-3.6%	18	5-7	0.3%	17	-4.0%	12	-4.4%	26
18	CIN	-2.9%	20	0.6%	16	5-7	-1.9%	18	0.7%	19	-0.3%	18
19	HOU	-5.1%	18	-8.3%	22	4-8	-3.5%	21	-1.8%	14	-3.3%	23
20	TEN	-5.3%	22	-6.0%	21	8-4	0.9%	16	7.3%	21	1.1%	14
21	OAK	-5.4%	19	-4.6%	19	6-6	10.8%	9	17.3%	32	1.2%	13
22	BUF	-11.2%	21	-16.9%	24	6-6	-16.2%	27	-0.4%	17	4.6%	7
23	ARI	-11.9%	23	-5.9%	20	5-7	-13.7%	25	-8.8%	6	-6.9%	30
24	NYJ	-15.4%	25	-12.6%	23	5-7	-5.8%	22	7.9%	22	-1.6%	21
25	TB	-15.9%	24	-17.9%	25	4-8	1.3%	15	13.5%	31	-3.7%	24
26	CHI	-20.4%	26	-20.5%	27	3-9	-18.3%	28	-1.7%	15	-3.8%	25
27	SF	-24.4%	29	-23.0%	28	2-10	-14.8%	26	11.3%	30	1.7%	12
28	NYG	-24.9%	28	-25.1%	30	2-10	-10.5%	24	8.3%	23	-6.1%	29
29	IND	-26.6%	30	-20.2%	26	3-9	-21.1%	30	9.3%	25	3.8%	9
30	CLE	-27.0%	31	-23.4%	29	0-12	-22.3%	31	-0.8%	16	-5.4%	28
31	MIA	-27.3%	32	-27.6%	31	5-7	-20.1%	29	9.8%	27	2.5%	11
32	DEN	-27.4%	27	-33.8%	32	3-9	-23.2%	32	-5.4%	10	-9.6%	31

16	LACH	2.0%	6-6	12.4%	5.4	19	-5.7%	30	-2.7%	21	7.4%	8
	TEAM	TOTAL DVOA	W-L	NON-ADJ TOT VOA	ESTIM. WINS	RANK	PAST SCHED	RANK	FUTURE SCHED	RANK	VAR.	RANK

[foreigner]

Good and exciting times for sure, not there yet tho.. they will be next year! (